Had it not been for Cartwritght's expressions of remorse, his guilty pleas and emotionally vulnerable state at the time, the judge said his tariff would have been 20 years.

Even when Cartwright is released he will remain on "life licence" for the rest of his days, subject to prison recall if he puts a foot wrong.

The judge said Cartwright, the youngest of seven children, endured a troubled childhood.

Psychiatrists agreed he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder at the time of the double murder.

One said he had an "emotionally unstable personality disorder".

He arrived in Llangollen on April 2002 on an outward bound course, but was asked to leave after a fight.

But he bought a tent and returned to the town eventually pitching up at Tower Farm.

'End automatic life for murder'

MURDERERS would no longer face automatic life sentences under proposals published yesterday - changing a law dating back to the death penalty's abolition 40 years ago.

The government's legal advisers suggested creating a new framework of "first degree" and "second degree" murder alongside a revised definition of manslaughter.

There should also be new categories of homicide for specific offences, such as assisting suicide and infanticide, the Law Commission said in provisional proposals.

Crucially, killers who intend to cause their victims "serious harm" but not to kill them will be treated as second degree murderers and will no longer face mandatory life sentences.

Ministers previously suggested the end of mandatory sentences would undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system.

But the proposals were harshly criticised by victims' groups because they opened the door to an end to mandatory life sentences.

Law Commission chairman Sir Roger Toulson agreed it could lead to fewer killers receiving life. But he insisted it was a "misconception" that Parliament was assured when capital punishment was abolished in 1965 that all murderers would get life.